Adventures in the House of M
by William Magnus
Summary: A version of the House of M universe, where things are differnet and yet in many ways just the same.
1. Prelude 1

"Your robbing me?! Don't worry about not being able to answer, that's just me telling your brain to do what I want. It's what I do. Do you know what they do to sapiens that break into homes in this part of the city?" The blond woman's voice showed no hint of surprise or even anger beyond the indignation of finding a thread bare group of mostly sapiens waiting for her in the middle of her living room, and none of the surprise it should have at the rather short and ugly looking one greeting her as if she should know him.

"And you young lady, what are you doing with this unwashed and rather ripe smelling group of...people?" She asked letting up her control on the teenaged girl that had been trying to hide behind a cloaked man that looked almost as if he was made of shadows.

"I'm Layla Ward and..."

The shot rang out of nowhere, followed by a silenced filled with shock and horror.

There would be noise soon. There would be movement, shouting, fighting, and dangerous subversives would be arrested. Those that did not die while resisting arrest.

There would be questions later. Who shot the young girl? What were the known criminals and wanted traitors planning? What drove the director of SHIELD insane enough to make himself an enemy of the state?

For now, for just a few seconds there was silence.

And on a roof top some distance away a man rubbed his smooth, scar tissue free, face along the barrel of the rifle he was busy disassembling. "Not any more ya pimple faced little brat. No more ugly ass road rash face for me, nu uh, and I ain't going back. Looking like a ricco suave Ryan Renolds is gonna boost my sales like nobody's business, not that there are any sales or anything. Fanfic is free, authors make no money, yadda yadda yadda. Maybe it will mean more hits or kudos or whatever feeds the writer. Ooh, maybe with my looks I will get a sex scene later. Come on Nate, where is the adult you now? You know what I am in the mood for? Chimichungas. I just love that word. Chimichunga, chimichunga, chimichunga!"


	2. Attack - Prelude 2

"You, this is all your fault!" The brunet woman spat her words dripping with venom. "We were ready to start moving and suddenly this! No matter, when I kill you things will change back and my plans will /not/ fail!" Strange gun already held in position she stepped closer to Wanda, Princess of Genosha and only member of the royal family not to be born a mutant.

"/NO!/ Don't hurt my Mommy!" Of the two young children suddenly throwing themselves in front of the woman it was the slightly leaner of them yelling, the air by his hands vibrating suddenly till it seemed to burst into flame and explosions that washed over their attacker.

As the fury of the attack fell away so too did the child, his energy spent and his hair now bleached white where it was once dark. The woman that had made her way into the safe room holding Wanda and her twin sons stood untouched by the sudden onset of the child's mutant powers.

"Hmm, surprising. I had expected the other one to attack me that way, not the little speedster. I came prepared, none of your powers can touch me today." The woman said with a small dark grin as she fingered a strange necklace she wore.

The other child, still clinging to his mother, turned to glair at the woman his eyes glowing with a soft blue light.

"Help Us."

"If only you knew child, I am doing that." She said raising the gun once more.

"No, not you..."

Thanks to her immense powers, incredible popularity, and constant service to the defacto rulers of the world Captain Carol Danvers US Air Force Retired (also known as the hero Captain Marvel) was one of the few sapiens with an invitation to the massive party being put on for the House of Magnus and the only one that was not in some way royalty or rich enough to buy a title if she wanted one.

She had come expecting opulence, arrogance, and to be bored out of her mind. What she had not expected was for the world to go insane.

Once the terrorists attacked it was like the world around her had gone insane. Off to the left of her the ruler of Wakanda was alternately hitting on and trying to kill the Queen of Kenya. To the right the Queen of England and her brother were in the middle of a free for all with the world famous wrestler Peter Parker the head of SHIELD (Or possibly former head of SHIELD since he was apparently on the terrorists side) and a man that looked like a school teacher shooting lasers out of his eyes. Somewhere behind her was a man babbling about Taco Bell while fighting a blond guy with a glowing fist, and in front of her...

In front of Carol was the notoriously hard to hurt sapien underworld king pin known as Luke Cage who had just sucker punched her. The cocky look on the criminals face moved less than Carol did when she was hit while she felt her jaw and cracked her knuckles. "Fine, at least I know with you I don't have to worry about holding back."

She was half way through the punch when the blue light filled her eyes and the world changed. Instead of being part of a melee on the lawns of Genoshas famous floating palace she was suddenly somewhere inside, and instead of facing the a criminal with nearly unbreakable skin she was nearly face to face with some tiny brown haired woman.

There was barely enough time for surprise to register on the woman's face before the punch hit and she was sent flying through a wall. A wall that Carol Danvers would later find out was several feet thick and made of concrete and steel enough to survive most attacks short of a point blank nuclear blast.

Carol had enough time to turn and face the small voice that asked her for an autograph behind her before the alarms started going off. Before she could decide just how to respond to the 8 year old child the room was filled with very angry, and very powerful looking mutants all wearing the red uniforms of the Crimson Guard, Magnetos own personal private elite special forces.

She almost wished she could go back to the mind numbing boredom that normally comes with major events like she was expecting tonight to have been. Almost.


	3. Code Green

As the soft blue glow that had obscured thier vision passed revealing a them to be in a new location the crown princes knew in an instant that for once this was not a drill. The war room was in near chaos while inteligence agents worked computers constant updating information and the main holographic display set in the center of the room showed a real time image of both the Earth and Moon.

"William, Thomas! Where have you two been?" The voice comming from behind them could not exactly be called shrill, but at the moment was far from it's normal pleasent tones due to a mix of worry and annoyance. The twins, dressed in identical save for the color uniform like suits, turned as one to face thier aunt.

Princess Lorna was, by most standards, far from imposing. Nearly half a foot shorter and more slightly built than her older sister and with a far more pixie like look too her she was the one of her fathers children most likely to be over looked in a fight. That is unless the people facing her remembered she had inherited her fathers powers, and his temper.

At the moment she was dressed in her full uniform as the leader of the Royal Diplomatic corps, which prince William secretly belived included a rediculous M shaped crown and massive shoulder pads under its cape because because it made her look far more impressive and intimidating than she normaly did when floating a few inches off the ground the way she was at the moment.

"We were in William's personal Library. He was in the midst of researching some spell or another while I slowly died of bordom. We had no idea the security systems in that half of the palace were less than fully opperational till Julian and Victor both nearly broke down the door rtying to get to us."

The lie was nearly beliveable, mostly thanks to comming from Thomas. The white haired twin often complained of being forced into the green uniform of the diplomatic corps students, but would in private admit to his brother that learning how to lie effectivly enough that even their mother would buy it on occasion was worth it. William, on the other hand, was so incabable of falsehoods that he had a hard time not giving away when other people around him lied.

Lorna, for an instant, looked as if she was going to call Thomas out on his lie before simply giving a disgruntled half laugh half snort. "We will talk about this, but later. Your old enough now to at least start being here if not taking part in important matters. Go stand by your uncle, for the first time since it was created eight years ago we appear to have a code green."

The twins shot each other, and thier aunt, questioning looks as they joined their uncle Pietro having never heard of a code green. That is until they saw the detail on the display that they were unable to see when they entered the room, the details most of the people there were focused on. Hidden behind the moon was a ever growing series of dots all holding in a perfect formation.

The meaning became suddenly crystal clear to both boys. Code geen, a Nonterestrial Invasion.


	4. Everyone Has Secrets

The servants of the royal palace in Genosha knew that out of the royal family the two most easy going and approachable members were the crown princes Thomas and William. They also knew that no matter how approachable, or apologetically nice in William's case, they were that there were moments that even they should be treated with all deference that was given the truly imposing members of the family. The very air in the palace seemed to transmit that now was one of those times that they should do their best to avoid being noticed let alone have any attention paid to them.

The royal twins marched, the really brave might at some safer time even describe it as stomped, past servants and court members alike in lock step all but seething with some obvious inner fury. The rumor was that they had been summarily thrown out of their first chance to sit in on a major meeting of some kind going on in the palace war room not long after the empowered sapien hero Captain Marvel forced her way in using a combination of her strength and the debt owed to her for saving the princes and their mother nearly eight years before hand.

There was a near audible sigh of relief throughout the palace when the young men finally shut themselves in their suit of rooms. If events held to form they would sulk there for a while, the longest they had done so after a fight with their Grandfather had been for nearly a week, and then quietly find someplace else to be while tempers on all sides calmed down. The last fight, the one that rumor had it involved not only the princes and their Grandfather but their Uncle and Aunt as well, had ended with them doing a 'Good Will' tour of America for a several weeks.

It was not until they had locked themselves behind closed doors that the pair began to speak at all. Thomas began to rant about being kicked out when things were just getting interesting, and cursing their cold and distant grandfather while William simply stood in silence. While his twin ranted though William was not idle, his eyes shone with blue light and his out stretched right hand began to fill with small electronic devices one by one. Amongst the listening devices were those that they recognized as belonging to their Grandfather's agents, as well as their own Aunt and Uncles people, and even a few from some of the braver tabloid papers from around the world and a pair do them of types even the brothers who had been doing bug sweeps of their suits on their own for 5 years now did not recognize in the slightest. Dumped into the toilet and flushed the twins waited a full minute before starting to pack.

"Do you think anyone bought it?"

"Please, you threw a less convincing hissy fit when they choose to break us apart for our training. You're going to have to send flowers or something to that maid that is always making eyes at you, you know Thomas. It was all I could do to keep a straight face when she hid behind a column to avoid you glaring at her."

"I know, I know, but it is going to have to wait till after all this is done with. Can't risk breaking our cover. Which reminds me, are you sure it is safe to talk now?"

"Yes, I put up a magic bubble as soon as I had all the listening devices that will make sure anyone trying to overhear anything, or even peek in using Telepathy astral projection or any other means is just going to see the normal post fight rants. Oh, remind me, after we are done packing we need to trash the room."

"What? But I like how we have the place looking now. If we trash it you know Mother is going to redecorate while we are gone just so we can have a fresh start and no memories of the fight."

"It is something we are going to have to live with. You heard Grandfather we can't let any possible infiltrators know the real reason for our trip. We have to get the...whatever it is before either alien armada can to keep them from going to war with our world in the middle."

"Yeah, about that. How suspicious is the timing on the two aliens showing up to tear Earth apart to get some sacred Macguffen they both claim at the same time? Ok, I mean I get Captain Marvel keeping her promise to the guy that gave her powers and never telling anyone he hid it on Earth till both species that claim it show up, or her managing to guess he had it in New York because of the time he spent there and how protective he was of that city above any other but.."

"I know, but she said he knew that they would come eventually. Hell, we only know as much as we do because she got warnings from people in both fleets that owed Mar-Vel something big. You know it's going to take more than just you and me to do this, right? We have to take the minimum number of guards with us, but we can't let any of them in on this but...I think I know someone we can trust. We are going to have to use the little device Captain Marvel gave us to test her but she is going to be perfect for this and I am sure she is going to be willing to help."

"Wait, stop there. You're not talking about your fag hag bestie whatever you call her Sapien friend are you? No no no no no, we are not taking some spoiled society girl you make fun of people's fashion sense with. One she will slow us down, two you will get her killed if things go bad, and three Grandfather really will yell at us instead of faking it this time. No, instead we are going with a friend of mine. Don't look like that, I do have them. I met him at the Library there in New York, guy is super strong and tough and even if he is a pig headed blow hard he has a mean right hook. And if you ever tell him I said this I will make you live to regret it, but the guy is stand up honorable person."

"Oh please don't give me that. Kate is a lot more than that or I would never hang out with her and you know it. Look there is something...wait, how do you know the guy has a mean right hook?"

"First time we met he decked me, nearly sent me through a wall. What? Stop looking like that, I didn't expect him to do it I mean really, who hauls off and hits a visiting dignitary? Ok, so I might have been acting like an ass but...damn it stop looking like that. So you're not the only one on Earth that is willing to call me on it when I act like that, big deal."

"I..you know what later conversation. I was saying Kate is more than you think she is. Look, we are going to use her as cover anyway, best way to explain being in New York is have her throw some big gala thing or drag us to one and she will do it without question if we have to keep her in the dark but we don't. It's...ah damn it you're going to find out anyway just you have to promise not to freak out you see Kate is..."

"Stop going on about the girl, it's a solid no we are not going to involve her. Especially not since we are going to get help from my friend. Look, you're going to freak out. I know you will but since we are sealed off so no one is going to overhear I better tell you this, my friend he is..."

After having spent the last part of their conversation talking over each other the brothers managed to line up so that their last words were said in unison.

"A member of the Sapien Underground."

"Wait? What? WHAT?!"


End file.
